College degree gender gap widens with younger Gen Xers

There’s a growing gender gap when it comes to the youngest members of Generation X and college.

A federal survey of about 9,000 young men and women born during the years 1980 to 1984 shows a big disparity when it comes to higher education, with women a third more likely to have received a bachelor's degree by age 27. While it has long been known that women are outpacing men when it comes to pursuing higher education, the extensive study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlighted several numbers that show the trend is accelerating.

“This is really an important phenomenon that hasn’t happened overnight,” said Ohio State University sociologist Claudia Buchmann, who last year co-authored a book “The Rise of Women” that sought to answer why more women go to college than men.